My musical tastes actually had a really strange development. My parents are old, so until I was around ten all I listened to was the oldies station (I like oldies and classic rock). I was semi-aware of modern music... I had heard of Nirvana, Michael Jackson, etc but it was this separate thing. Then my brother got a girlfriend who had a son my age, we hung out a lot. He listed to the local rap station (this was '95/'96 rap), so I did too... I even owned a cassette tape of Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise (did I mention I am whiter than white and lived ten minutes from Compton?)

So yeah, I got my own radio around that time, found the pop station and went into the teeny bopper stage. I am ashamed to admit this, but I liked Celine Dion and Brittany Spears... I owned the first Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, and Hanson albums... I have long since destroyed them.

I was also familiar with metal at this time. My brother is a huge Metallica and Guns & Roses fan so he made sure I was exposed. I liked it, my mother didn't, and I still wasn't able to watch MTV because "I was too young"

MTV saved me from myself. I started watching it in 8th grade, for the pop videos. I watched pretty much any video that came on, rap, rock, pop, whatever. I was a top 40 fan. Then I watched Twelve Angry Viewers (a show I liked but am kinda glad it's gone because they really did destroy videos, and that is bad). The video they were judging was Tourniquet by Marilyn Manson. I had sorta heard of Manson before, a cousin of mine liked him but that was all I knew. So I watched with rapt attention.

I fucking loved it.

Out went the pop albums, in came Manson, Korn, Rage Against the Machine, and numerous other metal and rock bands and I never looked back. Friends recommend other bands outside of the mainstream, and now those are my favorites. I stopped watching MTV when they stopped playing music by the good bands... or music at all (I missed early 90s MTV and I kick myself for it)

I do like Eminem sometimes, because he sings about stuff other than "ganstas, bitches, and ho's", some of his stuff is funny, and Manson is in one of his videos. I have never understood the ICP obsession, ever. I think I've been able to listen to only one of their songs the whole way though, but otherwise I have never liked them.

But yeah, that is my transition into a metalhead.

Sorry for bumping this but have some contributions to this thread. You don't have to be ashamed to admit you like Celine Dion and Brittany Spears. I don't know of many people that listen to Celine Dion and Brittany Spears along with Heavy metal but I'm sure you along with some other users who liked pop before switching would be a perfect fit in the "I listen to every genre" category. I like Heavy metal but also listen to other genres of music which includes Celine Dion and Brittany Spears which makes me a perfect candidate for the "I listen to every genre" category. I'll give you a brief rundown of what I listen to.

Marilyn Manson (Beautiful people and (Sweet dreams) are made of this)
Madonna
Judas Priest (You've got another thing coming and living after midnight)
Metallica (Pretty much anything by them is good)
Coolio
Eminem
Vanilla Ice
Ozzy Osbourne
Earth, Wind and Fire,
Genesis
Pink Floyd (But never listened to Ayreon but from the looks of it are pretty similar but just add power metal to Pink Floyd)
Phil Collins
Peter Gabriel
Tool

plus many more, so while you can call me a metalhead since I listen to it you can also call me a pophead, raphead, progressivehead etc so this makes Jack FM (which plays everything) perfect since I have all this on one convenient station. So as long as the music is good, I'll listen to it no matter the genre whether it's Christian, metal, folk, pop etc. Also, why has no one mentioned Tool at all? They are also like Pink Floyd but add in Progressive metal and Art metal to Pink Floyd's Progressive rock and Art rock sound and you've got Tool's sound.

Currently working on completing my collection of Rhapsody of Fire albums and one of the EPs that I don't have. I have From Chaos to Eternity but I haven't listened to it yet (still listening through Iconoclasm). Hoping to have The Cold Embrace of Fear and The Frozen Tears of Angels within a day or so.

I've been so busy that I have neglected my metal collection. I also need to get the new Iced Earth album since I think it just came out. Might have to wait on that one awhile though.

Originally posted by NelrithI'm also wondering how you like Ayreon but not Pink Floyd... just twist the genre a bit and they're pretty similar!

Woah, what?

Well actually, I can kinda see how this works to be honest. But it's more like "Classic Pink Floyd" is similar to Ayreon. Not Pink's later albums. It has to be real old. Like, back when they first started old.

It's an old debate that a lot of people had in the mid 80's in magazines and social groups. Was Pink Floyd classified as Rock? Or an early adaptation of Metal?

Better yet, is Pink Floyd even classified as a genre of music? Pink brought something new to the table. And it was revolutionary in it's time. Something that no other band has really touched on it yet. Not even Ayreon, or hell, even evantasia. Which is another good band that is somewhat similar to the vision of music Roger Water's envisioned.

Hell, Ayreon somewhat did the same thing. Relying more on it's own story rather than the music itself. Ayreon is more like reading a very good book while you can sit with your eyes closed and picture the story being unfolded. Even when no one is singing. You can just watch your imagination unfold and envision your own characters act, sing, and perform while the music is going on.

One of pink's classic songs were basically the early stages of metal. Not kidding, you look up a website that has classic pink floyd stations and you might be surprised if you are even listening to them or not. It even blew me away that it was totally different than The Wall, Dark Side of the Moon, and even some of the later albulms.

Going to touch on Ayreon a bit. The most amazing thing I liked about that band is that they had to illustrate multiple instruments to display the thoughts and feelings of aliens "Studying" the thoughts and minds of humans. The album 01011001 did this, while another album was just about a man living in a coma. That album was called The Human Equation. Ayreon had multiple views on making music an actual interesting story. And in some cases, succeeded!

But I guess what I am trying to say is that I can see the resemblances in both bands. But honestly they are two different things that you can't really touch. Both are very good bands.

Originally posted by BitmapI live in the south. And I know what you mean. Thankfully my dad listened to Bon Jovi and my mom wasa huge Pink Floyd Fan. Im a fan of both!

My mom likes Bon Jovi and Pink Floyd. I like some Bon Jovi. Not a Pink Floyd fan (which is apparently tantamount to heresy >.>).

And I'm from Oregon, and I randomly have a southern twang. How weird is that? I had a British friend of mine tell me my voice sounded "Backwoods." So I sound like a hick? :/ I blame my Southern Nana and Father. (And this totally relates to Metal. >.>)

As for Karaoke, I've never done it. Well, unless you count the one time I did it with one of my best friends and my sister on my friend's Xbox... I totally PWNED Ice Ice Baby.

I also do covers of songs and put them on Youtube. That may count as karaoke. Iunno.

I used to like a lot of retarded shit. And sadly that band was one of them.

I can even remember what song and what band that converted me into Power metal. but I'll first list off some bands that I enjoied even while liking my sad taste in music.

I promise. It's still metal.

First off, Soilwork was a good band for me. Natural Born Chaos has like 90% good songs and 10% meh songs. Overall, it has everything power. But for some reason it's not classified as one. Strange.

Second: God Forbid. For this reason alone.

Very political metal band. Kinda like SOAD but without...I dunno, SOAD.

But the song and band that got me ABSOLUTELY AMAZED at power metal was Wintersun:

Just wait until you hear him sing besides scream. It was incredible to listen to for the first time.

Still love this band. Sucks they still have not released a new albulm in over 10 years.

Unfortunately, when my parents got married (I was the flower girl!!) many things changed for the worse. Most of which I won't mention here, but the most relevant one would be the music. My father liked country music.

COUNTRY MUSIC. D:

I live in the south. And I know what you mean. Thankfully my dad listened to Bon Jovi and my mom wasa huge Pink Floyd Fan. Im a fan of both!

On occasion while I do karaoke, I'll admit I do country songs. But as my finale I always end with bands like Blind Guardian (Yeah, Karaoke exists for them). But sadly it's always this song:

Look I do karaoke at a VFW. There are a lot of old people there and they only let me sing because I can do some mad Bon Jovi / Pink Floyd. But at the end I always pull the stuff I like. I think the heaviest thing I have ever done was Bright Eyes by Blind Guardian.

The first song I remember loving is George Thorogood and the Destroyers' You Talk Too Much. I was five (or younger). I would sing it whenever it came on on my mom's cassette player. I also loved Bad to the Bone (Maybe someday I'll post my parody of that here...).

Unfortunately, when my parents got married (I was the flower girl!!) many things changed for the worse. Most of which I won't mention here, but the most relevant one would be the music. My father liked country music.

COUNTRY MUSIC. D:

The bane of my existence. I had to listen to it constantly, because the h*llhole of a town I lived in didn't have ANY radio stations EXCEPT country. (You know that town nearby where people say all the hicks live, where incest and sheep-f***ing abounds? Yeah, that's where I lived. -.-')

In fourth grade, we moved to my grandparents' house briefly. It was an even SMALLER town, and we lived like five miles away from it, but the top 40s stations actually came in!

And that was when I fell in love with Britney Spears, the Backstreet Boys, and N*Sync. The only cassette I ever owned (my family was poor >.>) was the Backstreet Boys' Millennium album. I loved it. Well, I loved two or three songs on it, at least. XD

I loved Britney Spears up until middle school. I had two of her CDs. I still don't understand why.

Fortunately, my AWESOME Art/English/Geography/History teacher (she totally should have been paid more, considering how many classes she taught...) introduced me to Enya and Loreena McKennitt. Her daughter burned me CDs (That said "Not for listening in class" on them XD) and I seriously listened to them until the metallic film on the CD peeled off.

Around 9th grade, I stopped listening to Top 40 stuff. I started listening to "New Rock and 90s Alternative." XD Oh, and I was obsessed with Green Day. That was around when their American Idiot CD came out.

I gradually moved to the harder Rock and Metal channel.

And then I met Chris.

I was 18, and Chris was this lil' metalhead I met on GaiaOnline (Shutup. >.>) who liked sending me furry porn. He helped me SO much musically (and in loads of other ways).

Eventually, I found my own musical taste. It varies and is weird, but it works for me.

My favorite genre is Symphonic Metal, but my iTunes has everything from Electronica to 80's Europop.

And that's how Equestria was made. Maybe next time I can tell you how I came to like the music I do!

My musical tastes actually had a really strange development. My parents are old, so until I was around ten all I listened to was the oldies station (I like oldies and classic rock). I was semi-aware of modern music... I had heard of Nirvana, Michael Jackson, etc but it was this separate thing. Then my brother got a girlfriend who had a son my age, we hung out a lot. He listed to the local rap station (this was '95/'96 rap), so I did too... I even owned a cassette tape of Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise (did I mention I am whiter than white and lived ten minutes from Compton?)

So yeah, I got my own radio around that time, found the pop station and went into the teeny bopper stage. I am ashamed to admit this, but I liked Celine Dion and Brittany Spears... I owned the first Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, and Hanson albums... I have long since destroyed them.

I was also familiar with metal at this time. My brother is a huge Metallica and Guns & Roses fan so he made sure I was exposed. I liked it, my mother didn't, and I still wasn't able to watch MTV because "I was too young"

MTV saved me from myself. I started watching it in 8th grade, for the pop videos. I watched pretty much any video that came on, rap, rock, pop, whatever. I was a top 40 fan. Then I watched Twelve Angry Viewers (a show I liked but am kinda glad it's gone because they really did destroy videos, and that is bad). The video they were judging was Tourniquet by Marilyn Manson. I had sorta heard of Manson before, a cousin of mine liked him but that was all I knew. So I watched with rapt attention.

I fucking loved it.

Out went the pop albums, in came Manson, Korn, Rage Against the Machine, and numerous other metal and rock bands and I never looked back. Friends recommend other bands outside of the mainstream, and now those are my favorites. I stopped watching MTV when they stopped playing music by the good bands... or music at all (I missed early 90s MTV and I kick myself for it)

I do like Eminem sometimes, because he sings about stuff other than "ganstas, bitches, and ho's", some of his stuff is funny, and Manson is in one of his videos. I have never understood the ICP obsession, ever. I think I've been able to listen to only one of their songs the whole way though, but otherwise I have never liked them.

When I was younger (like, 6ish XD) I hated Metal, because all I'd ever heard was my mom's version. Like, the stuff they play on the radio. I like some of that stuff now, but back then, it sounded like high-pitched screaming to me.